Thursday, October 3, 2013

The Case Of The Displaced Detective : The Arrival & At Speed

I have two books to share with you today written by Stephanie Osborn and they are loosely based on Sherlock Holmes with a twist in a series of stories called The Case of The Displaced Detective, and the first book is called The Arrival.

Synopsis of The Arrival:

Displaced Detective is a science fiction mystery in which brilliant hyperspatial
physicist, Dr. Skye Chadwick, discovers there are alternate realities, often
populated by those we consider only literary characters. Her pet research,
Project: Tesseract, hidden deep under Schriever AFB, finds Continuum 114, where
Sherlock Holmes was to have died along with Moriarty at the Reichenbach Falls.
Knee-jerking, Skye rescues Holmes, who inadvertently flies through the wormhole
to our universe, while his enemy plunges to his death. Unable to go back without
causing devastating continuum collapse, Holmes must stay in our world and
adapt.

Meanwhile, the Schriever AFB Dept of Security discovers a spy ring
working to dig out the details of - and possibly sabotage - Project:
Tesseract.

Can Chadwick help Holmes come up to speed in modern
investigative techniques in time to stop the spies? Will Holmes be able to
thrive in our modern world? Is Chadwick now Holmes' new "Watson" - or
more?

And what happens next?

I wasn't sure about these books at first because I never really did get into the whole Sherlock Holmes thing when I was in high school and had to read about him, but the books grabbed me when it involved a little science fiction and fantasy and once that happened, I was hooked!

In The Arrival, Dr. Chadwick, or Skye as she is called, brings Sherlock Holmes into our world by accident and then he has to learn to live here among us. There is some murders and some mysteries to solve along the way as he is learning about our century and he is quite upset to see how women have changed and especially how they dress!

But what also happens is before long, both Sherlock and Skye start noticing each other and I love the cat and mouse routine that they start having to play, not knowing what the other is thinking and poor Sherlock has his old fashioned idea's to contend with also, which makes things harder than they really need to be.

But that all changes when Skye gets shot and then all heck breaks loose!

The second book in the series is called At Speed and picks up where The Arrival ends.

Synopsis of At Speed:

Aborting one attempt to sabotage Project: Tesseract, Sherlock Holmes -- up to
speed in his new life and spacetime continuum -- and Dr. Skye Chadwick --
hyperspatial physicist, Holmes’ new “Watson” -- must catch a spy ring when they
don’t even know the ring’s goal. Meanwhile Skye recovers from two nigh-fatal
gunshot wounds.

A further complication is their relationship: the ups and
downs between the pair are more than occasional clashes of demanding, eccentric
personalities. Chadwick is in love with Holmes. Knowing his predilection for
eschewing matters of the heart, she struggles to hide it, in order to maintain
the friendship they DO have.

Holmes also feels attraction -- but fights it tooth
and nail, refusing to admit it, even to himself. For it is not merely Skye’s
work the spies may be after -- but her life as well. Having lost Watson to the
vagaries of spacetime, could he endure losing another companion?

Can they
work out the intricacies of their relationship? Can they determine why the spy
ring is after the tesseract? And -- most importantly -- can they stop it?

This book picks up with Skye in the hospital and narrowly dying from 2 gunshots that she took while protecting Sherlock back at the base.

Sherlock is worried sick and blames himself for the fact that he was not armed and that Skye had to protect him. He also finally realizes how much he really does care for her and is relieved when she makes a full recovery.

Once they are both back at home though, things take a decidedly different turn. On top of things still up in the air about the spy ring and sabotage, they have had to get bodyguards to keep both her and Sherlock safe while they look for the bad guys.

But, more interestingly, Sherlock & Skye's relationship takes a surprising turn one night and they are consumed with passion and finally act out both of their dreams and fantasies. Of course, it being Sherlock, he overthinks things in the morning and that causes some hurt feelings, but they are quickly put to rest.

Now, will they be able to solve this case in time?

Happy Reading!

About the Author

Stephanie Osborn is a former payload flight
controller, a veteran of over twenty years of working in the civilian space
program, as well as various military space defense programs. She has worked on
numerous Space Shuttle flights and the International Space Station, and counts
the training of astronauts on her resumé. Of those astronauts she trained, one
was Kalpana Chawla, a member of the crew lost in the Columbia
disaster.

She holds graduate and undergraduate degrees in four sciences:
Astronomy, Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics, and she is "fluent" in several
more, including Geology and Anatomy. She obtained her various degrees from
Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, TN and Vanderbilt University in
Nashville, TN. In addition she possesses a license of ministry in the Protestant
faith; has been a duly sworn, certified police officer, and is a National
Weather Service certified storm spotter.

Her space experience includes Spacelab
and ISS operations, variable star astrophysics, Martian aeolian geophysics,
radiation physics, and nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons effects. Her
travels have taken her to the volcanos of the Cascade Range in the Pacific
Northwest, where she explored any number of such volcanos, including being
present for several phreatic eruptions of Mt. St. Helens. Her broad knowledge
base and experience led the LibertyCon 2011 programmers to invite her to
describe what it takes to be a polymath.

Stephanie is currently retired
from space work. She now happily "passes it forward," teaching math and science
via numerous media including radio, podcasting, and public speaking, as well as
working with SIGMA, the science fiction think tank, while writing science
fiction mysteries based on her knowledge, experience, and travels.

Disclaimer: Mary Bearden personally reviewed these products. I did not receive any monetary compensation for my review, just a sample product. My opinion could differ from yours.